In recent years, a technology has been developed which involves individually addressable array elements, digital to analog converters for the source signals, inverse filtering for source precompensation, and spectral extrapolation to expand the bandwidth of the received signals. This technology provides significant improvement over conventional array systems. This technology has been utilized experimentally in acoustic and microwave projects as a way of forming a precompensated beam and detecting signals with higher than expected resolution.
The present invention involves modifications of this recently developed technology to enable its use, for example, in bio-med scanning and nondestructive evaluation for research and industry; and, more particularly, to scanning and imaging of the human breast.
There are three (3) major pieces or sections to this technique: 1) design of multi-channel, individually-addressable array elements, and associated drive electronics for creating and detecting acoustic and microwave fields; 2) inverse filtering to precompensate the output signals, to correct for flaws in the construction of the array, changing conditions in the propagation media, and so on; and 3) postprocessing, including spectral extrapolation and de-convolution to increase resolution of the system. More specifically, the present invention involves a method of forming acoustic beams encompassing array design, array excitation, and source signal preprocessing. The system of the present invention consists of a shaped array to conform to the breast, drive and detection electronics, and pulse conditioning software to optimize contrast and resolution in a given medium real time.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of forming broad bandwidth acoustic or microwave beams.
A further object of the invention is to provide a method of forming broad bandwidth beams which encompass array design, array excitation, source signal preprocessing, and received signal postprocessing.
Another object of the invention is to provide a technique for imaging human breasts, for example, which involves individually addressable array elements, digital-to-analog converters for the source signals, inverse filtering for source precompensation, and spectral extrapolation to expand the bandwidth of the received signals.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and accompanying drawings. Basically, the present invention involves compensated, individually addressable array technology. More specifically, this invention involves a method of forming acoustic beams encompassing array design, array excitation, and signal preprocessing, and is particularly applicable for bio-med scanning technologies, such as imaging the human breast.
There are three (3) major pieces to this technique:
1) Design of multi-channel, individually addressable array elements and associated drive electronics for creating and detecting acoustic and microwave fields;
2) Inverse filtering to precompensate the output signals, to correct for flaws in the construction of the array, changing conditions in the propagation media; and
3) Postprocessing, including spectral extrapolation and de-convolution into increase resolution of the system.